How many of you are on creatine? I've been working out for about a year and a half, wondering if it's time I dabble in it.
I've been using it since I've started bulking so about 3 months now. No real negatives as far as I know. Got 3 tubs of it stored so I'm set for a long time. All thanks to a deal posted in this thread.
How many of you are on creatine? I've been working out for about a year and a half, wondering if it's time I dabble in it.
A bit in both regards but nothing out of this world. I can say that my muscles are fuller due to the increased water retention (gained about 5lbs give or take a few). About in gym performance, all I can say is that I haven't had any trouble finishing my workouts on 5/3/1 and big but boring.Have you noticed significant size gains or strength gains in the gym?
Curious about this myself.
Do people just take it continuously? Is there a cycle? Can I mix it with my daily protein shake? How much should I take?
Would love to get a guide somewhere.
No need to cycle. I take about 5g a day whenever I remember since it doesn't matter when you take it. Pretty sure you could throw it into your protein shake but I just toss a scoopful into my mouth and take a drink of water. No taste at all at least when it comes to micronized creatine.
It's weird for me, I've been on/off, 5g, 10g, still don't feel it does anything for me. Tried 2 brands, now on GNC's creatine monohydrate.How many of you are on creatine? I've been working out for about a year and a half, wondering if it's time I dabble in it.
I would say a pound a week is a healthy amount to gain/lose. Thats about 500 calories above/below maintenance a day. So yeah, 15 pounds in three months should be doable.What's a reasonable time frame to set for gaining 15 pounds? Three months? I have never weighed more than 160 pounds. Right now I'm 155. I've gained about 5 pounds since I started lifting weights a few weeks ago. I want to see what I look like at 170. Consider it a personal challenge of mine. Hell, I almost want to see if I'm physically capable of weighing that much. Haha
If my memory serves your typical male can gain around 1lbs of muscle a month in ideal conditions. So any extra weight on top of that will be more or less fat for the majority of folks.
That in mind I would probably try to gain less than 1lbs a week if you want to stay within lower BF% levels.
Btw I've now lost 5,4kg in under four week with no loss in strength. Cut going as planned![]()
could you please elaborate a bit on what these conditions would be?
I assume,
.-extremely strict eating behaviour/diet
.-proven and succesful workout routine(s)
.-supplements (creatine? protein?)
.-not missing or half assing a single workout session in said month.
.-sleeping well (??)
anything else to consider? anything not truly necessary in my list?
1 lbs per month is like 1 kilogram every two months.. it seemes doable but damn hard, for me at least. (we are talking almost no fat, pure muscle mass, right?)
the discipline for that would have to be really incredible.
Lyle McDonald said:On average, a natural male doing everything right will be doing very well to gain 1/2 of pound muscle per week. A female might gain half that or about 1/2 pound muscle every 2 weeks
....
Let me reiterate: the average male trainee is doing well to gain about 1/2 pound muscle per week, 2 pounds per month or about 24-26 pounds per year. I’d note that that will generally only happen in the first year of training and things slow down after that. A female may be gaining about half that much, 1 pound per month of actual muscle tissue or 10-12 pounds per year. I know it sucks but that’s reality.
Probably at least the things you listed. The way I heard it was "if lifter does everything right". I haven't read any specific list but I guess it's the stuff we know is important for growth (rest, nutrition etc). This is the genetic potential for your typical drug free male but of course given the requirements most won't get this much growth.
It was either Lyle Mcdonald or Layne Norton who wrote about this somewhere.
Edit:
Remembered wrong. The maximum is 2lbs a month.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html
It is a great article. Probably everyone in this thread should give it a read since it's not even that long.
Does anyone drink those "recovery drinks" around their workout?
Someone suggested drinking one before, one during, and one after, is this wise? and if so which ones are good?
I just finished reading, agreed 100%, everyone should read if they haven't already.
still, 0.5 lbs per week, 26 pounds a year..11 freaking kilograms of pure muscle mass a year ... man, that's a ton.
I was weighting 137 pounds (62 kg) around the beginning of September, I was 142 pounds (64.2) 2 weeks ago.. all things rounded, 1 kilo per month, surely less but I don't take those numbers that seriously.. because I don't know how much of it is water/shit/food/retention of whatever and how much is true muscle mass acquired..
In theory I could gain 11 kilograms more in one year if things go like that but since I don't think I am doing all things right (like.. at all) by the standards of that article, I will probably gain around 3 kilos between this november 2012 and november 2013, I am most definitely o.k with that, if it happens.
Probably at least the things you listed. The way I heard it was "if lifter does everything right". I haven't read any specific list but I guess it's the stuff we know is important for growth (rest, nutrition etc). This is the genetic potential for your typical drug free male but of course given the requirements most won't get this much growth.
It was either Lyle Mcdonald or Layne Norton who wrote about this somewhere.
Edit:
Remembered wrong. The maximum is 2lbs a month.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html
2 lbs seems about right, but it should be noted that the longer you've trained the less muscle you'll yield from doing everything right, law of diminishing returns. Likewise, a newbie will make gains faster than a seasoned gym rat. I wish their were more studies for resistant training athletes, diet and what not.
I'd expect half that for most people.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone (in the States), time to get your bulk on!
BTW: If you didn't know strength villain has all their ebooks on sale for Black Friday with the checkout code RTS25BOOKS. 25% off at checkout. All of their books are fantastic if you're looking to get strong and have a solid endurance base. Plus, their ebook on steroids is, by far, one of the best primers on the subject out there. You won't be mixing in a lab any time soon, but you'll know more about it than 95% of the online "Dr's" and body builders out there.
Do you guys use this day as a cheat day or still eat moderate?
What's the best way to fix an uneven chest (specifically outer pecs). BB bench? My left pec is noticeably larger than my right one and it's starting to piss me off.
Do you guys use this day as a cheat day or still eat moderate?
What a lot of people don't get about "see food" diets is the drugs involved. If you're using anabolics on a bulk and aren't just eating a shit tonne of everything, you're doing it wrong. If you're not on drugs and are eating a shit tonne of everything, you're doing it wrong, too. It's my biggest complaint with people that live and die by Ripp's philosophies. Don't get me wrong, the man is correct about gaining weight, but most people have some aesthetic goals and getting too fat too fast can put a damper on those
Do you guys use this day as a cheat day or still eat moderate?
Do you guys use this day as a cheat day or still eat moderate?
Personally, I'm moderating. I never got the appeal of gorging on food. I hate the feeling afterward.Do you guys use this day as a cheat day or still eat moderate?
What's the best way to fix an uneven chest (specifically outer pecs). BB bench? My left pec is noticeably larger than my right one and it's starting to piss me off.
start jackin off with your right arm instead of your left
Guise, guise, is it true that dieting too hardcore-ly can prevent fat loss? I'm a skinny guy but somehow my body fat % got to 17%. I can diet rather effortlessly but now I'm scared that eating too few calories would be actually bad for my goal. But then the fasting crowd seems to get results anyway? I'm confused.
I just thought, fasting reduces your calorie intake a ton, and yet it seems to work for people. And I'm currently aiming for 800-1200 calories a day, I'm honestly not even sure if it's a good or bad "goal", it's just that dieting is rather easy for me and if I wanted I could be eating even less.Eating too little and exercising too much can and probably will hamper your fat loss. If you want to eat very little it's best not to do cardio and keep lifting volume to a minimum.
I'm not sure what fasting has to do with this since it's more about the timing of your meals to a certain period in the day.
And what kind of numbers calorie wise are we talking anyway?
I just thought, fasting reduces your calorie intake a ton, and yet it seems to work for people. And I'm currently aiming for 800-1200 calories a day, I'm honestly not even sure if it's a good or bad "goal", it's just that dieting is rather easy for me and if I wanted I could be eating even less.
I just thought, fasting reduces your calorie intake a ton, and yet it seems to work for people. And I'm currently aiming for 800-1200 calories a day, I'm honestly not even sure if it's a good or bad "goal", it's just that dieting is rather easy for me and if I wanted I could be eating even less.
Thanks a lot for the infoWell fasting in itself doesn't automatically reduce the calorie intake since you can still stuff your face during your feeding window. Though with most people it will reduce calories since they can only eat so much during the feeding window. And then again some people have no problems eating 4000 calories in six hours.
800-1200 calories is pretty extreme and most in this thread would advice against it. It's basically a PSMF-diet since with those calories you can basically eat only lean protein and some veggies. PSMF can end badly if you don't absolutely know what you are doing. If you want to know more I recommend buying Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss Diet which details how to do it in a safest way possible.
Still I would probably try something little less extreme at first. Especially if you don't have much experience in dieting.
How much you weigh and how tall are you? Do you lift?
http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ (Nifty calculator which you can use to estimate how much you need to eat a day and how much you would lose weight with a different calorie intakes)
Some good links about intermittent fasting if you want to know more:
http://rippedbody.jp/
http://www.leangains.com/
Stop dieting, start lifting.Thanks a lot for the info
I'm 177cm tall and weight 65kg (I'm not sure about my weight, but it's usually around 65kg... I'll check later today) and apparently I should be aiming for 1387 calories on rest days, which isn't that far, actually. I'll be eating a bit more and try to keep my calories around that number. In the following months I really want to become a bit more fit, I'll be 25 years old in January and I don't want to get to 26 in bad shape. So I might be checking this thread more.
Me x 20000. I can't wait till I'm on my competition diet.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2qFzMdwZ8Q&feature=plcp
How fitness competitors and bodybuilders feel like on a diet.
But I really want to lose a bit of fat first... it's going to go up when I get into lifting, and it's already at 17% which is quite high for a skinny guy, isn't it?
Me x 20000. I can't wait till I'm on my competition diet.
CONGRATS SHOGUN!!!!
But I really want to lose a bit of fat first... it's going to go up when I get into lifting, and it's already at 17% which is quite high for a skinny guy, isn't it?